J.J. Watt extremely angry after loss to Seahawks

On a third down in the first quarter, Texans defensive ends J.J. Watt and Antonio Smith simultaneously converged on Russell Wilson and made a sandwich of the young Seattle quarterback.

It was a 1-2 punch kind of a play that, for the longest time, defined this game, signifying the resurgent home team’s thorough subjugation of the previously unbeaten, now humbled visitors.

One hit Wilson high, the other hit Wilson low.

A glorious moment, it had the largest crowd in Reliant Stadium history roaring its approval as Watt and Smith hugged.

The fans had, for the moment, forgotten Matt Schaub’s interception on the Texans’ previous series and, after the Seahawks punted, Schaub kept the mojo alive by directing a 90-play touchdown drive, giving the Texans a 10-0 lead that would grow to 20-3 by the end of the half.

But it didn’t hold up, of course, and after the 23-20 loss in overtime, Watt and Smith hardly saw things with the same single-minded purpose with which they’d crushed Wilson.

Both were upset, to be sure, and in full agreement that there was no way the game shouldn’t have been pried from their grasp. However, while Smith got all touchy-feely philosophical about the day’s collapse, speaking of such things as silver linings and blueprints for success, Watt was seething.

His countenance could accurately have been described as fearsome, even frightening, by the time he put an abrupt end to the interview at his locker. A bloody gash on the bridge of his nose, which had required six stitches to close, didn’t help any.

“I’m (angry),” he said, his lower lip trembling slightly. “This sucks. Nobody likes to lose. Especially like this. In your own building. This isn’t fun, man. I was sick of it after one loss. I can’t … That’s all I’ve got to say.

Asked how he got cut, Watt glared straight ahead.

“I hit people for a living,” he said.

Funny line. But nobody in the press corps dared to chuckle.

Yet earlier Smith had insisted, with a gentle upbeat tone: “I’m obviously disappointed because that was a disappointing one. But I know most people won’t agree with me and think it strange, but I feel better now about my team than I have all year because we’ve got the formula, we’ve got the blueprint, and we know how to do it now. We know how to believe in ourselves now. All we got to do is iron out the little mishaps.

“No reason we should have lost this game, none whatsoever. The only reason why is because here and there we made a couple of mistakes, but the feeling that was in the stadium today, the feeling we have not had this year . . . This game here is going be a blueprint for what’s going to come.”

Uh, OK.

Presumably, Smith’s happy talk stemmed from the fact that the Texans’ defense had, taking their afternoon as a complete body of work, again played extremely well – good enough that they’re going to be leading the NFL in yards allowed by the end of the weekend.

Take away one 98-yard drive (actually 113 yards because Seattle lost 15 on two penalties) and the Seahawks went virtually nowhere, gaining 157 on their 13 other possessions without crossing the goal line.

That’s been a persistently bizarre story line all season, though. The Texans been shoved straight backward 99 and 98 yards at home and yielded 80-yard marches three times on the road. Those ponderous series account for five of an eminently respectable total of nine touchdowns allowed by the Texans’ defense over four games.

Reed suggested the Texans need to “lock a team down” on every drive and that may well be the case with the way Matt Schaub’s catastrophic interceptions are making a mess of things. But the defense stood behind the embattled quarterback and Watt tried to make it clear his anger was team-directed, not Schaub-directed. He also issued a guarantee the nonsense will cease.

In a roundabout way, then, he was agreeing with Smith.

“There won’t be a challenge (to overcoming the disappointment),” he said. “We are going to show (Monday) and get every single thing we’re doing wrong corrected. We have just got to finish. We didn’t finish the game. We will get that fixed. Everything that is wrong will be fixed. I can promise you that.”

Nobody laughed then, either. It was not the day to get on J.J.’s bad side.